This invention relates to self-cleaning and filling birdbaths for use by birds or other animals for drinking and bathing. More particularly, the invention is a self-cleaning birdbath which uses water pressure and a pressure responsive spray nozzle to fill a bath bowl, agitate the water and any effluents in the bowl, remove/expel the water and effluents from the bowl, and refill the bowl with water for reuse.
Many varieties of birdbaths have been devised in the past. The most common is a simple bowl supported on a pedestal for use in a yard, park or other area. Birds and other animals frequent such baths for drinking, washing or bathing and, consequently, often leave dirt, excrement and other effluents in the water contained in the birdbath. With such conventional structures, it is necessary to frequently wash the bowl area of the bath and refill the bowl with clean water. If the owner of the birdbath is away for any extended period, such maintenance cannot be properly attended to and the bath will remain dirty and unused by the birds and animals.
Because of such problems, various methods have been devised for filling or emptying birdbath structures. For instance, Wingfield Pat. No. 2,878,781 discloses a bath installation for birds including a bowl having a central column which includes both a central water supply pipe and surrounding drain holes. Water fills the bowl to the level of the drain holes but no farther. However, no structure for cleaning the bowl or removing dirty water is
Examples of self-cleaning birdbaths are shown in Garwood Pat. Nos. 3,696,786 and 3,995,591. In these structures, the entire bowl area of the assembly is pivoted for movement from a horizontal, water containing position to a substantially vertical, water removal position. Movement between the two positions is caused in one case by overflow water caught in a suspended receptacle which pulls the bowl to its inclined position and, in the other case, by water pressure which fills a fluid cylinder to push the bowl to its emptying position.
Other animal drinking structures have included various automatic water filling apparatus. However, all required at least some manual cleaning, manual control or insertion of the water in the bowl.
Accordingly, the need was apparent for an automatic birdbath structure which would operate periodically without intervention to fill, clean and empty itself reliably. It was also desired to provide such a structure wherein the filling, cleaning and emptying apparatus was unobtrusive and remained out of the way of the birds and animals except during the filling, cleaning and emptying process. It was further desired to obtain such a structure which could be easily adapted for use with residential or commercial water systems, be installed inexpensively, and require relatively few and reliable parts. The present invention was conceived in recognition of and as a solution for these problems.